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88
ing done so, seized Sikes by the hand, and
declared he was a real good fellow. To
which Mr. Sikes replied he was joking ;
as, if he had been sober, there would have
been strong reason to suppose he was.
After the exchange of a few more
compliments, they bade the company good¬
night, and went out: the girl gatherin
up the pots and glasses as they did so, an
lounging out to the door, with her hands
full, to see the party start.
The horse, whose health had been drunk
in his absence, was standing outside, ready
harnessed to the cart. Oliver and Sikes
got in without any further ceremony, and
the man to whom he belonged, having
lingered a minute or two “ to bear him up,”
and to defy the hostler and the world to
produce his equal, mounted also. Then
the hostler was told to give the horse his
head, and, his head being given him, he
made a very unpleasant use of it, tossing
it into the air with great disdain, and
running into the parlour windows over the
way ; after performing which feats, and
supporting himself fora short time on his
hind-legs, he started off at great speed, and
rattled out of the town right gallantly.
The night was very dark; and a damp
mist rose from the river and the marshy
ground about, and spread itself over" the
dreary fields. It was piercing cold, too;
all was gloomy and black. Not a word
was spoken, for the driver had grown
sleepy, and Sikes was in no mood to lead
him into conversation. Oliver sat huddled
together in a corner of the cart bewildered
with alarm and apprehension, and figuring
strange objects in the gaunt trees, whose
branches waved grimly to and fro, as if in
some fantastic joy at the desolation of the
scene.
As they passed Sunbury church, the
clock struck seven. There was a light
in the ferry-house window opposite, which
streamed across the road, and threw into
more sombre shadow a dark yew-tree with
graves beneath it. There was a dull
sound of falling water not far off, and the
leaves of the old tree stirred gently in
the night wind. It seemed like solemn
quiet music for the repose of the dead.
Sunbury was passed through, and they
came again into the lonely road. Two
or three miles more, and the cart stopped.
Sikes alighted, and, taking Oliver by the
nand, they once again walked on.
They turned into no house 2: Shipper¬
ton, as the weary boy had expected, but
_ still kept walking on m mud and darkness
through gloomy lanes and over cold open
the lights of a town at no great distance.
On looking intently forward, Oliver saw
that the water was just below them, and
that they were coming to the foot of a
bridge.
Sikes kept straight on till they were
close upon the bridge, and then turned
suddenly down a bank upon the left.
“The water!” thought Oliver, turning
sick with fear. “He has brought me to
this lonely place to murder me !”
He was about to throw himself on the
ground, and make one struggle for his
young life, when he saw that they stood
before a solitary house all ruinous and
decayed. ‘There was a window on each
side of the dilapidated entrance, and one
story above; but no light was visible. It
was dark, dismantled, and to all appear¬
ance uninhabited.
Sikes, with Oliver’s hand still in his,
softly approached the low porch, and
raised the latch. "The door yielded to his
pressure, and they passed in together.
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-SECOND.
The Burglary.
“ HALLO!" cried a loud, hoarse voice,
directly they had set foot in the passage.
6 Don’t make such a row,” said Sike
bolting the door. “Show a glim, Toby.”
s Aha! my pal," cried the same voice;
“a glim, Barney, a glim! Show the
gentleman in, Barney ; and wake up first,
if convenient.”
The speaker appeared to throw a boot¬
jack, or some such article, at the person
he addressed, to rouse him from his slum¬
bers; for the noise of a wooden body
falling violently was heard, and then an
indistinct muttering as of a man between
asleep and awake.
“Do you hear?” cried the same voice,
c There’s Bill Sikes in the passage, with
nobody to do the civil to him; and you
sleeping there, as if you took laudanum
with your meals, and nothing stronger.
Are you any fresher now, or do you want
the iron candlestick to wake you tho¬
roughly ?”
A pair of slipshod feet shuffled hastily
across the bare floor of the room as this
interrogatory was put; and there issued
from a door on the right hand, first a feeble
candle, and next, the form of the same
individual who has been heretofore de¬
scribed as labouring under the infirmity
of speaking through’ his nose, and officia¬